Editorial: Society needs to focus on loneliness issue

Research is pushing society to consider growing feelings of isolation as a health epidemic. In the summer of 2017, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology at Brigham Young University, shared research that found a lack of social connection has health risks that are the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes per day.

With the appointment of a “Minister for Loneliness” this week, Britain captured the world’s attention.

Prime Minister Theresa May made the move on Wednesday, partly in response to a 2017 report published by the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness that says more than nine million people in the country often or always feel lonely. British government research also found about 200,000 older people had not had a conversation with a friend or relative in more than a month.

This is a unique and inspired move, and one Canada might consider — although perhaps with a more hopeful title, like Minister of Connection.

Research is pushing society to consider growing feelings of isolation as a health epidemic. In the summer of 2017, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology at Brigham Young University, shared research that found a lack of social connection has health risks that are the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes per day.

It is not just the elderly who have this issue. As reported by the CBC in 2016, 66 per cent of Canadian university students admitted to feeling “very lonely” in the past year in the National College Health Assessment.

These numbers are of concern, but the news story about the British appointment likely gained traction because we see the problem all around us, and perhaps in our own lives, despite a huge increase in so-called connection through social media. How many family gatherings result in everyone sitting around staring at their phones?

It is not, of course, just up to government to acknowledge and address this problem.

As an article in the National Post pointed out this week, former U.S. surgeon general Dr. Vivek Murthy wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review last year arguing that loneliness needed addressing in the workplace.

It could be associated, he wrote, “with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, depression and anxiety.”

How is the person sitting at the next desk doing? How about the elderly neighbour who lives down the street? What about our own family members?

Doctors are encouraged to look at loneliness as a factor in assessing the health of their patients.

Neighbours reaching out to help each other is a part of Saskatchewan history of which we are proud. We bring over food when a baby is born. Farmers help each other bring in their crops. Communities band together to raise the money — and the structures — of halls, rinks and barns.

Apparently, we need to tap into these roots and ensure people feel supported and important, no matter what stage of life they are in.

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